Pragmatic and alternative use of a pigtail pleural drainage catheter as a suprapubic urinary catheter in the retrieval setting.
Rural and remote health · 2025-12-01 · Case report
Abstract
A man aged 52 years was retrieved from a rural hospital in South Australia following an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. He required a urinary catheter due to bladder distension and long retrieval time. It was not possible to insert a urinary catheter via the urethral route. Bladder decompression was achieved with a pigtail pleural drainage catheter carried in the kit of the retrieval team, with no complication. This approach is a pragmatic technique in a limited-resource setting, where access to formal suprapubic catheter kits or associated personnel may not be available.